Tak

The Wizard's Apprentice - Part 3

     The rest of the room seemed to be a display area for souvenirs and curiosities the old wizard had picked up over the years. A glass cabinet contained a variety of human and humanoid skulls along with a few shrunken human heads hanging by their hair. Another contained crystals, polished sections of coloured stone and the fossils of strange, multi-legged creatures frozen in black slate. Shards of broken pottery lay scattered across one of the tables, some of the pieces glued back together to make two thirds of an elegantly decorated urn.

     A row of shelves along one wall held large glass bottles containing the partially dissected corpses of various creatures floating in a yellowy fluid. Other, smaller bottles contained powders and liquids labeled with words Tak wouldn't have recognised even if they hadn't been written in such crabby, spidery writing. A table on the other side of the room, partially hidden behind a suit of armour on a stand, had a large sheet of paper spread out on it, coiling up at the edges and held down by what looked like large nuggets of gold. From what he could see, it appeared to be a map, although he'd never seen a map before and had no real idea what they looked like. More maps, if that was what they were, were stuffed untidily in an open chest nearby, rolled up tight and tied with coloured ribbons.

     A large part of the room was hidden from sight by a tall free standing cabinet with doors of polished and varnished orangewood, and Tak was wondering what mysteries it contained when there came the sound of a chair being pushed back behind it and a young man appeared, dressed in a similar manner to himself. He was the most beautiful, perfectly proportioned man Tak had ever seen. Golden haired like himself but with eyes of piercing, emerald green. His handsome face was distorted in a sneer of contemptuous amusement, though, as he crossed the room to stand before the boy and stare down at him.

     "So, Gomm's new sweetcheeks. In person at last. Welcome to Castle Nagra, young man."

     He held out a hand and Tak took it automatically. The man's hands were soft from years of easy living and the nails were neatly manicured.

     "My, what rough hands you have," the man said, fingering the boy's calluses. "Have to do something about that. He doesn't like rough hands on his delicate skin. You might find yourself thrown out into the snow while he goes looking for a pretty princeling to be his new playmate."

     "Master Tak, may I present master Philip Gable," said Trobo. "Master Philip is the master's first apprentice and you will obey him as you would the master himself. Serve him well, and one day you may be an apprentice yourself, and eventually a wizard in your own right."

     "A wizard, imagine that!" cried Philip gleefully. "Power over the lives of men and the fate of nations. When he first brought me here he had to use spells to control me, just like you, but when I discovered the power that could be mine I chose to stay of my own free will. Of course I had to sleep with him, but now he's got you he won't want me for that any more. He likes 'em young, you see. Young and fresh. Sweet and tight." He stroked the boy's cheek with one long finger. "I have to say, you're even better looking in real life than you were in the crystal ball. I may make use of you myself from time to time. What about you, Trobo? You interested in our new arrival?"

     "Such things hold no interest for me, as you know," replied the houseman flatly.

     "Oh yes, that's right," the impossibly handsome young man said as if he'd forgotten, although he very obviously hadn't. "But then, what does? You don't seek company for your bed. You have no friends. No social life at all. You never ask for any time off. You never leave the castle at all except when we need special supplies or new servants. He's the perfect servant, on the surface at least, but what terrible vices does he practice in private, when the rest of us are asleep? Must be something pretty dreadful if it's worse than buggering little boys, eh Tak? What could possibly be that terrible? Makes you wonder, eh?"